There was a time when Catholics rarely received Communion. Since reception was so infrequent Benediction and the exposition of the Blessed Sacrament became popular. People had replaced receiving the bread and wine with gazing and offering prayers before the Blessed Sacrament in the monstrance on the altar. In order to emphasize the importance of receiving Communion the Church promulgated a rule that we were required to receive at least once a year.
That has changed. Today most of us will come forward to eat and drink the Eucharistic bread and wine. They are unique reminders of Christ’s presence and his life offered for us. As in the gospel narrative, once again Christ blesses and breaks the bread and offers himself to us. The cup contains Christ’s life poured out for us. With the bread and wine we offer ourselves on the altar today. When we receive the transformed gifts we are reminded that we too are being transformed. With Christ we are blessed, broken and poured out in love for our neighbor. At our Eucharistic table today we receive a share in Christ’s life so that we can share it with the whole world.
The account of the feeding appears in all four Gospels, underlining the importance of the miracle. But each evangelist approaches the telling from his own perspective, with his own intentions. As in the other accounts, Saint Luke has packed a lot into a few verses as he narrates the miracle of the loaves and the fish. The attentive Bible reader will detect that he is going back into Israel’s history and is drawing on its symbols and feasts.
Here is a little of that backdrop. Those who approached Jesus to tell him of the people’s needs are not called the disciples or apostles. They are “the Twelve” — an allusion to the twelve tribes of Israel. A new Israel is in a “deserted place” and must rely on God for a new “manna” each day. We also remember that, without God’s guidance, the Israelites in the desert would have been lost. Without the nourishment God provided the people would have perished and there would have been no Israel. The new Israel turns to Jesus to be its daily food and our way through the modern desert. Without the nourishment we celebrate on this feast, we too will lose our way and our spirits will starve as we look in the wrong places for our daily bread.
The numbers in the story are also symbolic. The five loaves and two fish — seven — remind us of the days of creation. Something new is being created in this desert place. The 5000 sat in groups of 50; perhaps the size of the initial church communities. But the number 50 was the Jubilee number, suggesting a cessation from labor and a time to start all over again. 50 also echoes Pentecost, the grain harvest celebrated 50 days after Passover. Luke is preparing us for the coming of the Spirit at Pentecost, which he will tell us about in Acts.
Pentecost came to symbolize the giving of the Law to Moses. An abundance of grain at harvest time anticipates the blessings and banquet the people hoped they would share at the end times. While Jesus provided for the people’s present needs, the meal also pointed towards the promise of the heavenly banquet when they would share an abundance of food and drink. The same is true for our eucharistic feast today: it is the “daily bread” we need if we are to follow Christ’s ways, but it too points to the eschatological meal we await in hope.
The object of our worship today is the Body and Blood of Christ and its implications for those called “disciples.” The bread is broken; Christ shares his life with us so that we will be broken for others in his name. The cup is poured out for us, so that we will, in our turn, pour ourselves out as we forgive those who have offended us; nourish the hungry and be a guide to those in their own “deserted places.”
In some evangelical traditions there is an “altar call.” After the preaching people are invited up to give their lives to Christ. What we do today is somewhat similar. First, we hear the Word of God and are reminded of what God has done and is now doing for us; then we offer our “Eucharistic Prayer,” our prayer of thanks and praise. After this we have our “altar call,” when we come forward to receive the life Christ is given for us and to renew our commitment to do likewise — pick up the cross and follow the example Christ has set for us. Or, as Paul reminds the Corinthians: after Christ took the bread, gave thanks and broke it he said, “Do this in remembrance of me.” That command sets the pattern for our lives.
The gospel narrates a similar teaching from Christ. Jesus recognizes that the people, who were with him in the deserted place, were hungry. He tells his disciples to give them something to eat. He wants us to share what little food we have and, like those disciples, go out into the “crowd” and distribute it to the hungry. “Do this in remembrance of me.” When we do, Jesus will take whatever we have to offer, bless and break it so that it will be more than enough.
We celebrate in reverence the Body of Christ today and, in doing so, also deepen in our reverence for the Christian community — the Body of Christ — who with us, worship, are nourished and are also called to feed the hungry. “Do this in remembrance of me.”